The Dubai metro system is going to turn into an art gallery on the orders of the emirate’s ruler, it’s been reported.

Trains will be redecorated to reflect the museum project

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum says he wants to “inspire and communicate with every employee on his way to work, every student on his way to pursuing education and every tourist visiting Dubai”.

Four stations have been selected for the first phase of development. One will host a collection of Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy, with pieces drawn from 1,400 years of Islamic culture. But it’s not only the stations that are getting a make-over, as the driverless trains will also be decorated inside and out to reflect the project.

Construction is due to start within weeks, the Emirates 247 news website reports, and work should be finished in time for a national arts festival taking place next year.

According to Gulf News, half a million people use the five-year-old metro system every day, many of whom will pass through at least one of the four new museums on their journeys.

An artists’s impression of what the renovated metro stations might look like

Now, what could we do to rival this in N gauge? An HST covered in ‘Banksie’. Or probably more suited to the average railway modeller, a EuroStar covered in classic nudes? Or thinking about it, wouldn’t the Eurostar be better covered with the Bayeux Tapestry?